chapter two ~ into the light
Emma was still watching through the large front window of the diner, stunned that even though Mr. Gold was slowly making his way back to his shop - no doubt still watching, but leaving them nonetheless - Graham was still leading an unresisting Killian Jones to his squad car parked at the curb outside, a firm hand on the man's arm and hand guiding his head down as he opened the door to put him in the back seat. She could barely process what was right before her eyes, knowing Graham wasn't any more convinced of her new friend's guilt than she was. If she hadn't still had Henry pulling on her other hand, looking up at her with frightened and disillusioned young eyes, she would have run out to the sidewalk right then to reason with her boss.
She felt more than saw that Ruby had come to stand at her other side, even before the leggy brunette laid a staying hand on her upper arm. Her clear gaze was trained to the same place as Emma's; her solemn dark eyes watching her brother's movements as he closed the door behind his passenger and moved slowly around to the driver's side of the cruiser.
"There's more to this than you know, Emma," she stated calmly, holding Emma's doubtful stare when she turned to glare at Ruby in challenge.
"Really, Rubes?" Emma retorted, her exasperation clear, "because it looks like the guy I work with - the friend and boss I've come to respect - just arrested someone without cause and is about to wrongfully hold them in jail."
Her friend didn't answer right away, her shoulders slumped slightly as she let out a sigh. Her eyes fell to Henry for a moment, holding out a hand to the boy with bright red painted nails. He took her hand without hesitation, familiar with and genuinely fond of the usually bubbly, exuberant waitress. "Henry," she spoke sweetly, gesturing over her shoulder to her own grandmother who had just come out from behind the counter, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and giving Emma's son as warm a smile as Emma had ever seen the tough old bird produce. "Granny's taking off until the lunch rush - nobody's gonna come back in here until then at least. And you need to get to school. Will you let Granny take you?"
Henry was more than astute enough to know when he was being shielded and kept in the dark, but to his credit, he didn't make a fuss or argue. It made Emma's heart swell to think that maybe - just maybe - no longer than she had known and had a relationship with him, her son trusted her to do her best to right this wrong. He wrapped his skinny arms around her waist, burrowing his face in her stomach for just a moment while she ruffled her hands through his soft, brown air, then he stepped forward and gave Ruby a quick, impulsive hug too, and went to Granny willingly.
"Come, come, my lad, let's get you to school," Granny fussed as she ushered him out the door with just a brief, searching look back at her granddaughter and the deputy. Emma heard her saying something about, "...and the sooner you get to your classes, the sooner you can be right back here at the counter with that Paige of yours, and Nicholas and Ava maybe, for after school ice cream…" then the door swung shut behind them and they were gone.
Quiet settled over the deserted diner, which was never empty at this point of the morning, despite what Ruby had told Henry, but Emma ignored the rather eerie feeling in the familiar building to turn to her friend, hand on hip and waiting expectantly. "Well, let's hear it then," she prompted when Ruby merely fidgeted and bit her berry red lips before turning and grabbing a rag as if she intended to wipe down tables rather than provide the promised answers.
"Oh no you don't," Emma said, placing herself right in Ruby's path. "You said I didn't understand, that I didn't know everything...so I'm listening. Please, explain to me why my good, honorable partner would jail an innocent man, because you're right, I don't get it."
Startling her more than a little, Ruby whirled on her, bringing herself nose to nose with Emma and staring her down. Though most of the time Ruby disguised the strength and power she truly possessed with giggly flirtation and playful short skirts and heels, Emma sensed just then the raw fire beneath the pretty surface. When her friend spoke, her voice was low and controlled, but it didn't keep the sound of it from being closest in tone to a warning snarl. "And just how do you know for certain this Jones is innocent, Emma?! Hmm? I'm pretty sure you just met him this morning, same as I did - same as anyone else in this town. He just suddenly arrives here? In our hidden, supernatural town, in the midst of a crisis? And that doesn't seem the least bit strange to you? Not to mention that he - "
The brunette broke off before completing that thought, whatever it might have been (and Emma was immensely curious). Figuring it wouldn't do any good, not when Ruby was already so fired up Emma still couldn't help pressing, "He what? What were you going to say?"
Ruby's fit of passion seemed to leave her as quickly as it had come. She slumped, defeated and drained looking into one of the empty booths and motioned Emma to sit opposite her. She flung the rag onto the table between them before propping her elbows on the formica surface and burying her head in her hands for a couple of long, bracing beats. Sighing, she shook her head and then murmured, "Nevermind, that's not important right now."
"Wait, how is that not…?" Emma started, but Ruby shushed her with a look, her mouth thinned to a warning line as she merely waited until Emma trailed off and paused, finally willing to wait again until Ruby had finished saying what she intended.
"Look, it's not my story to tell, okay? Just forget it for the moment. What you do need to hear has to do with our past in the Enchanted Forest, and some things Graham probably didn't know how to tell you - or even want to tell, but clearly you're going to have to gain some idea or you'll think he's a horrible person for considering Gold's orders." She picked at her nails, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, and then looked up to hold Emma's gaze steadily. "Okay," she blew out a huff of air resignedly, then plunged forward. "So, you know how the kiss you two shared returned Graham's memories even before the curse broke, right?"
Emma nodded impatiently, not sure where this discussion was going and fidgeting more and more in her seat to get back to the station and straighten out whatever was happening.
"Well, turns out his memories of who he was weren't all that kiss brought back. I told you before that Graham had been taken by the Evil Queen, conscripted as one of her Black Knights, but Emma - she literally had his heart, held captive in her vault with countless others. And when someone's heart is in another possession like that, they lose their own free will. The person holding their heart controls them completely. There's no way to fight it; that person's a pawn, a puppet, a slave forced to do the master's bidding. Regina used him in ways he hasn't been able to put into words, that he hasn't had the time or ability to deal with yet, but our pack bond lets me sense at least some of it - impressions of the fear, the pain, the helplessness - he couldn't deny her anything. He was trapped, but a part of him still loathes himself for the things she made him do to others, and the things she did to him against his will." Ruby's eyes burned with righteous fire even as her voice floundered several times in explaining to Emma just what her brother had been through. "Let's just say, I hope you guys find Regina before she shows her face to Granny or me. I don't think either of us wants to be responsible if our inner beast takes control."
Swallowing hard, Emma signified that she understood the naked threat; she really couldn't even blame Ruby. There was a part of her still aching for Mayor Mills' hide herself for the trauma, loneliness, and self-doubt the woman had inflicted on Henry - not to mention that she was also the reason Emma had been alone all her life and never known the parents who did love her and had wanted her very much. Who but a villain would try to convince a ten-year-old they were crazy in order to cover up their own wrongdoing? But, she had to fight to keep that impulse in cheek. Here before her was just one example of why she couldn't go vigilante, however good her reasons. Too many others were right on the brink, and somehow they had to keep the powder keg Storybrooke had become from blowing up in all of their faces.
Yet, she was also still more than a bit confused. What did Graham's nightmare at Regina's hands have to do with Gold and his arresting Killian Jones? Cocking her head at her friend on the other side of the booth, Emma pressed, still trying to see the whole picture. "But if Graham's been under someone else's control all this time, wouldn't that be all the more reason for him to do what he feels is right, not just whatever Gold tells him to do?"
Ruby blew out a frustrated breath, leaning forward again intently. "Think Emma," she murmured under her breath, quietly seething even though no one was around to overhear them. "How do you think Graham is still alive if he got out from under Regina's thumb?" She closed her eyes briefly, as if having to gather the strength to think about, much less say, the next words she uttered. "Don't you understand? That night he collapsed...that wasn't some random health episode or heart anomaly. That was Regina trying to kill him before he said too much. She attempted to crush his heart into dust, and she only failed because of the superhuman strength he gains with his werewolf side."
Emma drew in a sharp gasp, surprised and appalled to learn suddenly how close she'd come to watching him die right in front of her. The night had been traumatic and frightening enough before, but to realize that all the time his heart had been outside his body while someone else tried to squeeze the life from it, was sickening.
Now that Ruby could see her friend was truly comprehending the horror, she pressed on, eager to have the entire dark tale out in the open light and dealt with at last. "Well, once he recovered, Graham came and told Granny and I everything. We had to get his heart back. It wasn't even a question. So…" she licked her lips, leaning forward to whisper even more furtively, truly resembling the stalking predator she could readily become, "we broke into the Mills family crypt. We waited for a night when we knew the moon would be full, all the senses and awareness and stealth we have at our command at the peak, and when we also knew Regina would be kept late at a town council meeting and then a budget committee one after. Once we forced our way in, it wasn't hard to detect the drag marks on the floor where that ridiculously ornate coffin have been shoved over and back again atop that secret entrance. Graham - horrible as it was - vividly remembered where his heart was hidden the minute he set foot in that cursed chamber again."
She shook her head briefly, as if staving off some sort of reaction she had to close her eyes against, a mental image she wished to shed welling up behind her eyes. Emma didn't have siblings, had never gotten the chance to experience such a bond, but she knew how it had pained her on her friend's behalf when people had turned on Mary Margaret for her tryst with David, or when she even suspected someone might have upset Henry. It had her wanting to reach out to the she-wolf in sympathy.
A grateful if trembling smile stretched over Ruby's painted lips, "Thanks," she whispered, sensing Emma's intent before the uncertain gesture was even complete. "I promise, we're almost finished. It was just important you understood how we got here." She squared her shoulders, blew out a breath, and pulled the last bit of the story out at last. "There we were, Graham's glowing, magically preserved heart outside his body, but in his possession again. Still, we didn't know what to do, how to get it back in his chest where it belonged. Would there be side effects? Was it damaged after 28 years of squeezing and prying and separation from his body? We may be magical creatures, but we don't actually weld magic like that. We really only had one choice - much as we didn't want to make it. Only one other person in this town beside Regina herself might have known how to help us…"
"Gold," Emma stated breathlessly in dawning realization, the pieces suddenly starting to click together in horrifying place.
"Yep," Ruby affirmed bluntly, the "p" popping from her lips with scornful distaste. "And you know he never does anyone a favor without exacting a price."
"Well," Emma sat back hard against the vinyl of the booth seat, digesting all she'd heard and readying herself for the fight ahead. When she met her friend's eyes again a few seconds later there was a steely determination in their green depths that, even after their relatively short acquaintance, Ruby knew most people had learned not to question - and that she had come to respect. "Enough of that," Emma continued stalwartly; her stubborn mind clearly made up as she stood from the bench seat and squared her shoulders. "Come on, let's go."
"Wait, what?" Ruby spluttered, scrambling after her and tossing her apron on the table to follow Emma to the entrance. "What are you going to do? I don't think-"
Emma spun at the door, green eyes flashing, "Look, I understand why you guys went to him. You really didn't have any other choice. I made that mistake once myself," but then Emma drew herself up straighter, as if trying to physically stand taller to gather herself for the fight ahead. "I don't want Graham hurt either, but we can't do our jobs and protect this town with Gold and his favors to collect hanging over our heads. Plus, Graham still isn't really free if he's just having to act as a different person's puppet. Is he?"
Ruby didn't answer this at first not sure, not sure how to counter Emma's logic, but concern for her brother whose heart she had literally seen pulsing fragilely outside of his body not that long ago, still overriding most everything else. Plus, she had almost all she could manage to keep up with Emma, who was now striding briskly toward the station, with her ridiculously high wedge heels over the uneven pavement of Storybrooke's aging sidewalks. Finally, she managed to get in breathlessly, "No, I guess he isn't, when you put it that way. But still, do we really wanna give the guy who put his heart back in reason to rip it out again?"
The question made Emma's shoulders slump marginally, but she didn't stop moving forward. Her voice was low and taut with worry over the seriousness of the situation when she did respond. "I get what you're saying, Rubes. I do. But we may not have a choice. This can't go on forever. We need to turn the tables on him."
By the time this hissed whisper exchange was complete, they had reached the station. Emma jerked the outer door roughly in her haste and turmoil, and Ruby simply clattered in behind her - concerned naturally, but also gaining a bit of her friend's projected confidence. Bucking the ruling power in town appealled to her, and it was long overdue. She'd do what she could and hope for the best. Emma was the Savior after all; she had broken the curse that gave them all back their true selves, perhaps she really could set them free once again.
Neither woman was quite prepared, however, for the calm, once might even call it ordinary, sight which greeted them once they got past the lobby and into the main office of the station. Both Graham and Killian stood near the bars of the cell that the sheriff had clearly escorted their new guest into. Killian Jones looking much more relaxed and at home than someone newly arrested and taken to jail had any right to - leaning against the wall of the cell, one arm propped at the elbow up on the metal crossbar and his legs crossed casually, seeming at ease as if he were at home in his favorite chair. Graham on the other hand, looked downright anxious and sheepish, clearly not happy that Gold had been able to face his hand so neatly and all signs pointing to the guilt he felt for taking Killian in without a good reason.
It was evident that the two had been deep in conversation, and neither seemed at all upset with the other, which Emma happily took as a good sign. Once having that gauge of the situation she made her way across the room toward them, Ruby at her heels.
"Hey there, beautiful," Killian offered in greeting, his eyes twinkling playfully despite the less than ideal surroundings in which he found himself.
Emma felt the room go hot and her vision a bit fuzzy at the way his gaze seemed to track her motions; if she didn't know better it would remind her of the way a predator in the wild tracked its prey before pouncing and devouring. Despite the heated flow of her blood, a shudder ran through her, making her response shaky at best, "Hey yourself, Jones. You're awfully chipper for someone recently incarcerated." She flustered despite her easy banter, shocked at how hard she'd had to bite her tongue not to call him "Handsome" in place of his name and how hard she was still fighting not to reach through the bars that separated them and pull him closer by the edge of his open jacket.
She fisted her hands reflexively and then shoved them in her back pockets, trying to simply look expectant to hear what they'd been up to. But Jones' eyes still watched her intently, and his brow arched with a wicked bent at her fidgeting, as if he knew exactly what was going on inside her.
"Well Lass, a lovely lady such as yourself is already visiting me - and will presumably be one of my jailers - so I can't complain overmuch. Your partner here has been filling me in on the rest of the story as well. All considered, I've certainly been in worse straits and lived to tell the tale."
Emma had vaguely felt both Ruby and Graham go a bit tense at Killian's "beautiful" and his blatant flirtation, and though she'd been almost too engrossed in his aura to fully register their strange reactions, she could tell now that both of them were still a bit on their guard, perhaps even suspicious, though each was working to portray an appearance of calm. Her eyes darted from one of her friends to the other sharply, tyring to pick up whatever last cue she was clearly missing.
When she came up empty, Emma simply decided to plow on - frustrated but anxious to move her plan forward, get Jones out of that cell, find the poor missing woman they needed to locate, and not - definitely not - tackle Jones onto her desk and mess her hands in that dark, shaggy hair of his while she kissed that infuriating smirk he was leveling at her off his face. The picture was so vivid as it flashed in her head, she had to physically shake it loose, and her words sounded almost desperate as they spilled out in a rush and forced her to refocus.
"Good, we've apparently all caught up and in the loop then. Here's the thing. We can't let Mr. Gold, Rumplestiltskin, whoever he wants to call himself, run this town. We need to protect ourselves and the people who've trusted us to keep them safe as well. I say, we find this Belle, reunite she and Gold and tell him our debts are both paid in full," she gestured between she and Graham but didn't stop talking, seeing all three members of her audience open their mouths to interrupt and protest. "I'm serious. We let him know we've done what he asked - which was the right thing to do anyway - and we did it together. So we've both returned the favor he did for us. The end. Simple. He can't hold it over us forever. I'll take her over there myself even, so he doesn't go for your heart again," she added to Graham. "This is my reckless plan after all," she tacked on with attempted levity.
Graham protested immediately, "Emma, I couldn't let you take that risk alone to protect my own skin."
She shook her head, ready to tell him she didn't want him to suffer any more at the hands of twisted, power-tripping lunatics, even if it made things awkward by letting him know she knew all, or upset with his sister for telling her. Before she could get the words out, however, a deep voice interrupted hoarsely; emotion making it rough but all-too-certain of what he was saying.
"It's awfully dangerous, Love. You may think it sounds clear-cut and reasonable. But things are never simple with Rumplestitlskin. He lives for his deals, and he's the king of loopholes. Trust me when I tell you that thinking you've gained the upper hand can prove deadly." He raised the oddly stiff hand on his left as silent proof.
She shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest defensively and though his clearly painful past with the Crocodile as he called Gold hurt to consider, she couldn't let it stop them. They could all pay, but they would regardless if they kept letting Gold call the shots. "Regardless," she countered, "we're going to have to take our chances. You guys go track down any leads you think could help us find this Belle. I'll stay here with Killian. If we bring Gold's missing loved one back to him, try to make our own deal in return, maybe, if the prize sweet enough, he won't be able to resist." She shrugged, out of words now, "It's the best chance we've got."
"Emma, are you sure that's wise?" Graham questioned awkwardly and then trailed off, just as Ruby began to step forward, shaking her head.
"What?" Emma questioned, planting a hand on her hip. "Am I not a good enough deputy to watch over things here now?"
Killian reached out through the bars and pulled on her hand gently, "Easy Lass, don't think that for a second. It's me they don't quite trust."
She turned to look at him slightly, not sure what was happening, but he sighed with a sheepish look from Graham to Ruby. "I already told the Sheriff here how I got to this land with Mayor Mills' sorceress mother, and did some shady things to stay on her good side back in our land. Never mind the fact that…" he paused, licking his lips as he glanced down at his worn boots then back up at her from under dark lashes, "they can't help doubting one of their own who doesn't belong in a pack. It's part of their nature - wolves aren't meant to run alone. But I've never quite fit, and any pack I've tried to join sees me as a loner and wonders what's wrong with me. Then the pattern continues and I'm still alone."
"Wait, seriously?!" Emma sputtered incredulously, eyes bugging, even as she sensed Graham relaxing, clearly glad not to be hiding any longer, and Ruby smirked knowingly at Killian's admission and Emma's reaction. "You too? Are you serious right now?"
Killian's smirk stretched across his face in an irresistible, hungry expression; one that Emma wanted to let devour her no matter the cost. The low murmur of his voice rolled through her like tingling pleasure despite how she tried not to let it show. Still, she knew the heat must have rose as a blush in her cheeks and at least a small smile at his words. "Come now, Swan. Don't pretend my animal magnestism didn't draw you from the first moment our eyes met."
Emma found herself leaning forward, just as Killian leaned in as well, forehead to the metal bars, his warm breath on her cheek. "Don't try to hide it, Love," his teeth flashed. "I can see it, smell it on you. That kind of desire just can't be hidden."